Balfron Matters
Finding your thing - excited band members
Thanks to Ashley Edwards and the Rock Bands for the gig on Friday.
Finding your thing - excited band members
Thanks to Ashley Edwards and the Rock Bands for the gig on Friday.
2 June 2025
Weekly communication for staff
Building Futures Together
Dear colleagues,
I hope that you have had a restful weekend after a super busy week. Our seniors are back with us this week. Thanks to Phil and the technicians for supporting the SQA exams so thoroughly for our young people in the last weeks. They went as smoothly as they possibly could have.
Thanks to Claire, the PTs PS and everyone who ensured that our P7 transition was successful. The welcome/expectations presentation shared are below along with a video overview of the three days.
Thanks also to Duncan and Marie-Claire for taking our seniors to Loch Eil for an excellent Outward Bound experience last week. The pictures below capture the important moments of the trip where our young people were both challenged and stretched and those where they found success.
I am pleased to share that Ashley Montgomery from McLaren High School was appointed on Friday to share (0.4 Monday/Tuesday) Phil DHT Campsie temp post. Ashley will take up post in August. As well as sharing the lead for Campsie House, Ashley will lead on tracking participation, wider achievement and celebrating success. Ashley will also lead the coordination of form class time. I know you will join me in welcoming her when she joins us.
Raising attainment
It already feels like we are ahead of this time last year having had two clear weeks of the new timetable. A crucial part of our raising attainment strategy for next session is the move to a new tracking system, which will better allow us to track, intervene and more easily analyse progress over time. This will be a key feature of our SIP 2025-26.
Finding Your Thing Matters #buildingfuturestogether
Thanks to Neil Cameron and Fiona Fowler for organising our Future Pathways event for Monday. We have a range of providers from apprenticeships, colleges, universities and the world of work at Balfron to meet and inspire our young people. This is an opportunity for our young people to reflect on their abilities and skills, consider and find their thing and plan for their pathway. Thanks again to Neil and the team. Please note that all seniors are expected to be on timetable on Monday afternoon.
Thanks are also due to Ashley Edwards for organising and supporting the smooth running of the Rock Gig on Friday. The number of young people involved in the rock bands is steadily rising., It's great to see those who have found their thing and been confident to share it. It was also really super to see so many staff in the theatre supporting both groups. Thanks for sending me photos and videos - I've shared below.
Learning, Teaching & Assessment
Thanks to Sheena for organising the Tri-Learning groups of nine feedback meeting. It was great to see everyone for sharing observations and contributing to rich pedagogical discussion. Michelle has organised another lunch and learn session on Wednesday 18 June where colleagues will be sharing their Active Inspire resources. Remember we have a fantastic professional learning Google Classroom called Active Learners as well as the L&T website and Toolkits. Much more great detail below.
School Trips next year (S2)
There have been some fabulous school trips offered again this session. In order to minimise disruption to classes, we plan to run the S2 Mediterranean adventure during the last week of term. I would like to offer a short, more local alternative for S2 in the last week of summer term. This may be as straight forward as an Alton Towers trip. If you have suggestions, please see David or me.
I hope you will be able to come along and support our production of Grease. See Anna Barrie for tickets.
Another busy week lies ahead. As always, thanks in advance for your hard work and professionalism.
Have a great week. #buildingfuturestogether
Elaine
This week at Balfron:
Mon: Future Pathways (am)
Tues: Languages Open Doors
Sports Awards
Wed: SNC meet
Leadership Team Meeting
London Trip Info
Thurs: Show Rehearsals
Zanzibar Bag Check
Fri: Science Open Doors
Show Rehearsals
Notice Boards
#findyourthing
Photos & videos from last week include:
Congratulations to 52 new S4 young people who successfully completed a gruelling Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Expedition this weekend in very challenging weather conditions. The wind, rain, cold and wall of midges didn't deter good spirits. Groups display true team working by motivating each other and resilience.
Back stage set designers prepare for Grease
Senior Pupils take part in Outward Bound at Loch Eil with Marie Claire & Duncan
Friday's amazing Rock Gig
Let's get this show on the road - Grace and Amanda get the posters up for Grease in the local community
Forest School pupils clear a path for walkers
Making raised beds at Green Routes
Geordie, Tom, Betsy and Laura (2C1) did themselves proud representing Balfron High at the Micro Tyco finals. They were one of 6 teams in the final out of 2000 submissions across Scotland. While not picking up the final trophy they took a lot away from the experience.
S3 make cinnamon buns
S4, N3 artwork
Expressive Arts Open Doors on Thursday
Congratulations to S2 Sadie Greig who won Glasgow City College annual design competition. The judges said it was an immediate winner - clear, powerful design (below her sketch). Lachlan McLean was also highly commended for his own design!
Please take photos and share with me directly via email or Whatsapp (with each pupil's permission). Let's recognise and celebrate all the good stuff. We will also share in the Parent newsletter, Balfron Highlights. #wearebalfron #buildingfuturestogether #findyourthing
Rock Gig 30/5/2025
The Bandits & Blue Void
Inhouse CLPL 24-25
active learners - active thinkers
This term we'll continue to explore techniques to add to our repertoire to keep our BGE learners Active!
Most can be added into lessons for a 5-10 min activity to boost engagement
Find lots of ideas previously explored this session in the Active Learners Classroom: 6a7mbjk
What's coming up at Lunch n Learn?
ActiveInspire:
Tapping into the power of our interactive white boards
Lots of people have requested this session so come along and watch a simple demo of how to use ActiveInspire, the software built for meeting the needs of the classroom teacher.
If you've never used ActiveInspire, come along and see how simple it is to use and the advantages it has over other presentation softwares.
The Walkthrus Series
As a school, we have purchased the excellent Walkthrus series.
The full collection can we viewed on our BHS L&T website.
As our seniors move onto study leave, its an opportunity to grab a bit of time for professional development, and the self-study nature of this resource is perfect for this.
The Formative Assessment and Relationships & Behaviour Clusters are shown here but there are many more to choose from
Focus on Feedback
We continue to discuss strategies around feedback, one of our most powerful drivers of improvement for learning
Have a look at our discussion so far on the slides and come join us for more sharing of great practice around feedback
Key Messages Around Feedback
Adaptive Teaching is simply our
Everyday Excellent
Scaffolds:
A temporary support to reduce
the complexity of a task
writing frames ◾word banks ◾ structured study mats ◾help sheet how-to◾ number lines◾ worked examples ◾graphical organisers
Scale:
Flexibility within the scale of output required
Can build this up over time
Challenge:
Meaningful ways to extend learning that isn't just 'more of the same'
All resources in the Classroom
code to join: 6a7mbjk
Promoting Study Skills
Head Prefects will be promoting all things
Good Study this week at lunchtime
Direct your seniors to the stall for:
BHS Core 4 steps to Study Success
QR links: How-to Techniques
QR links: e-sgoil support pages
Grab n Go Study Planners
Grab n Go Flashcards
Top tips on the best Study Apps
Positive physical & mental wellbeing
Powering up our seniors for successful studying
Quick links for form and class resourcing
This Week: Display in S4/5/6 Form Class
Sharing our Resources
Feedback from our festival was super positive, it was clear we all enjoyed sharing and learning from one another
Accessing our digital resources
Professional Reading Library - Strathendrick Suite
More Digital CLPL
always available through the links below:
Education Scotland:
Professional learning modules
to work through at your own pace.on Scotland: Professional Learng Modules
Increased consistency in Learning & Teaching
Improved Wellbeing & Inclusion of all young people
Increased offer in Curriculum
Increased Attainment & Achievement
Increased influence of Pupil Voice on Improvement
Elaine J explains the cooperative strategy:
Stand and Delivery
and its use in engagement and building in accountabilty into group tasks in her higher class this session.